Gentle Folk Onkaparinga Sangiovese 2023

It’s not often that an Australian sangiovese makes me sit up straighter, though I’ve had my moments with both Castagna and Fighting Gully Road over the years, and perhaps with Syrahmi too. I also enjoyed Gentle Folk’s 2023 ‘village’ sangiovese. But this new Gentle Folk Onkaparinga Sangiovese 2023 ($70) from – in the words of the winery – “the boniest and highest section of the Turnbull Vineyard in Charleston” in the Adelaide Hills, is certainly a step up on the village, and more importantly: is a beautiful wine.

Interestingly, this vineyard is now over 25 years old. Sangiovese’s moment in a media sense in Australia was the early 2000s-ish, which means that this vineyard (planted 1998) is from that era. No one much talks about sangiovese any more, for a variety of clonal and general quality reasons, but the best examples now are clearly a whole world better than the wines that gathered attention back then. The irony of fashion.

The best examples of Australian Sangiovese now are better because the quality of the fruit is better, no doubt, but also because the makers of these wines are aiming for a more appropriate ideal. For appropriate read: less forced.

I digress. What I love about this wine is how assertively medium weight it is, and how assertively savoury, in the context that it feels a) satisfying and b) fruitful. It tastes and smells of potpourri crushed, fennel rolled, red cherries squished, mace, rust, twigs and more. It uses acidity to keen advantage, and places tannin through the back half of the wine like slips of paper in a book. Everything seems fine. Everything seems deliberate. Everything seems as though its requirements have been met. When I say medium-bodied, I should note that if anything this sits on the light side of that ruling. It’s not light, but it’s not much more.

As a result, it’s mouthwatering.

Gentle Folk Onkaparinga Sangiovese 2023 is sealed with a DIAM (5) cork. Only 123 dozen have been released. It is a beautiful drink, truly.